


Everything You Need Is Here

by dapatty



Category: Bandom, Empires (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Killjoys, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 03:53:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2798567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapatty/pseuds/dapatty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A very small slice of the Empires as Killjoys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything You Need Is Here

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted on Twitter a million years ago, maybe even by inlovewithnight. Either way it's been in my docs for way too long. 
> 
> Also written in a different style than usual. *hands*

Tom was completely and over what’s left of the prairie. He’s tired of the dust getting into everything, just clinging to him like an extra layer of clothes, getting into the grit of his eyes even with the goggles. He could taste it on the back of his tongue even after a good day when they’d gotten enough water. 

But he wouldn’t trade riding the bike for anything. Probably not even riding shotgun with Max. Someone’s got to ride point. Had to keep an eye on the horizon, every wisp of dirt out of place for Drac patrols. 

Besides Tom was the most nimble at it even if Max had the better eye for detail and Steegs was more ruthless with her raygun. Sean was better as a getaway driver all told, even though he was still on the mend from the last close call, being stoic about it but favoring his left side, wince mostly covered up by his beard. Tom was still pissed at himself for letting it happen. He couldn’t have helped it. 

Life in the zones carried on about how Tom expected it to go from the beginning. Most time spent on finding hidey-holes for transmissions on the radio waves when he wasn’t dragging Sean away from poking B.L.I.N.D with a stick, metaphoric and otherwise. 

Most of his days got spent in an _in between time_ , drifted along with him on a dirt bike following Sean in a piece of shit van, that has more rust than vehicle. Always following Sean and keeping watch. 

Or they were saving Steegs and Max from Dracs because you never leave anyone behind. When it wasn’t that, it was missing the city more than he should, even with how scrubbed clean it had become. How even now, the skyline of Chitown was nearly the same but twisted, gleaming in a way it was never meant to, he kept wishing to be there.

Maybe the best of the _in between time_ spent sitting by a fire or laying on the cold ground, shoulder pressed to shoulder next to Sean watching the stars and Max calling bullshit on all the constellations Sean pointed out. They may not have much of anything else, but at least the Midwest was still full of stars.

The day to day stuff kept him going, helped him keep track of the passage of time when they weren’t at the wrong end of a ray gun. Like how his hair was longer than it has ever been, hastily pulled back with a green ribbon Steegs found, the wind threatening to untie it as he rode by abandoned fields and barns and dirt.

Today, as the sun blazed toward the horizon making their shadows long, they’ve stopped in some long abandoned field. They might still be in what was Illinois or Indiana. Tom lost track of where. The prairie looked the same except for the craters. He thought about riding on some of these same roads on the way to shows in venues long destroyed in the ghost of cities decimated. He could almost feel the frets under his fingers today. 

Tom broke the silence and asked, "Don't you miss it? The way it used to be? Playing shows? The joy of it?" 

Sean tilted his head, evening light playing tricks with Tom’s eyes, making Sean look like some sort of old god, glimmer of smile tucked under all the filth. Tom thought, and not for the first time, that he would follow this idiot everywhere, even to the very end of the road. 

"We are what we always were,” Sean said, scratching at his chin. “Just a little dirtier. Longer in the tooth, Tommy, but we’re still them. Still singing somewhere. Still playing. Music’s in our blood and I’m not just being sentimental." 

“Man, you are the biggest sap I have had the privilege of knowing,” Max said. "But it's kinda the same. We always made home where we could. We're all still together. It's the same in the ways that matter." 

The silence was comfortable after that until Steegs gave Max a noogie and said, "look how smart little brother got." 

Tommorrow they’d get back to ray guns and Sean emoting on the radio while Tom rolled his eyes and Max being Max and Steegs being rad, but for now, everything was pretty much perfect. Tom almost didn’t miss anything at all.


End file.
